This year’s Academy Awards were handed out on Sunday. As usual, below is my look at the 2026 animation-related Oscar winners. A full list of nominees and winners is available here.
Animation-related nominees are in italics; winners for each category are in bold.
Best animated feature film
- KPop Demon Hunters
- Arco
- Elio
- Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
- Zootopia 2
Best animated short film
- The Girl Who Cried Pearls
- Butterfly
- Forevergreen
- Retirement Plan
- The Three Sisters
Original song
- “Golden” from “KPop Demon Hunters”; music and lyric by EJAE, Mark Sonnenblick, Joong Gyu Kwak, Yu Han Lee, Hee Dong Nam, Jeong Hoon Seon and Teddy Park
- “Dear Me” from “Diane Warren: Relentless”; music and lyric by Diane Warren
- “I Lied to You” from “Sinners”; music and lyric by Raphael Saadiq and Ludwig Goransson
- “Sweet Dreams of Joy” from “Viva Verdi!”; music and lyric by Nicholas Pike
- “Train Dreams” from “Train Dreams”; music by Nick Cave and Bryce Dessner; lyric by Nick Cave
“KPop Demon Hunters” has a “Golden” night
As usual, I didn’t watch the Oscars. Between only being interested in the animation and best picture categories, plus the award’s problematic aspects and questionable choices in the past, there’s no reason for me to sit through a three-hour-plus award show. And even caring about best picture is feeling questionable, given the academy’s choices/biases.
“KPop Demon Hunters” won for best animated feature; I half expected the academy to pick “Zootopia 2.” So I guess (similar to Bugs Bunny being called “that Oscar-winning rabbit” during his Saturday morning days) the film’s cast can be introduced as “those Oscar-winning demon hunters.” (Or would if modern trademark owners weren’t overzealously defensive, as shown by the Olympics.) Also, Sony’s really probably wishing they hadn’t treated “KPop” as just another animated film to make for Netflix. At least “Goat” (if no “KPop Demon Hunters”) Is doing OK for them in its current theatrical run?
Everyone’s favorite demon hunters also won the original song category for “Golden.”
Others have noted that this marks four years in a row that the best animated feature winner isn’t from Disney or Pixar. For the record, out of the last four winners, two were released through Netflix (“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” “KPop Demon Hunters”) one was an indie film (“Flow”), and one was a Studio Ghibli film (“The Boy and the Heron”). Which seems to support my theory that this decade’s major animation trends are from studios that aren’t Disney, Paramount, or Warner Bros. But at least those three get to enjoy, um, more pointless media mergers, including two of these three merging with each other? Telling LGBTQ viewers their existence is considered “therapy?” Endlessly rebooting or relying on old IP?
The animated short winner is “The Girl Who Cried Pearls,” a Canadian stop-motion animated film about a boy in love with a girl whose tears turn into pearls. It’s a National Film Board of Canada produced film.
On the live-action side
Outside of the animation related categories, this year saw a rare tie, with two winners in the live-action short subject category.
As for best picture, despite “Sinners” having a record number of nominations (16), it only won four (best actor, cinematography, original score, and original screenplay). “One Battle After Another” is this year’s best picture winner.
“Sinners” seemed like a reach for best picture anyway: it’s a film with a mostly Black cast (unlike “One Battle”), and it’s a horror film, a genre the academy doesn’t view as best picture material. (Despite horror-in-all-but-name “thrillers” like “Silence of the Lambs” winning such.) While “Moonlight” (a film starring gay Black characters) won best picture years ago, I’m still surprised that one managed to do so, given the academy’s track record. That said, going by social media anecdotes, fans of “Sinners” also seem to like “One Battle” (if not as much as “Sinners”). And given the brain trust involved, the best picture winner could’ve been a lot worse.
Where to watch the 2026 Oscar animated feature nominees
Below is where you can watch the animated feature nominees, as of this writing. “KPop” is due to get a physical media release via the Criterion Collection, though no firm release date’s been announced.
- KPop Demon Hunters: Netflix
- Arco: digital rental, Blu-ray/4K (available May 19)
- Elio: Disney+, DVD/Blu-ray
- Little Amélie or the Character of Rain: DVD/Blu-ray, digital rental
- Zootopia 2: Disney+, DVD/Blu-ray
Image: “KPop Demon Hunters.” (Sony/Netflix)
